3 Dead Giveaways That A Riot Is About To Break Out

Have you ever seen news coverage of riots on TV before? It’s not a pretty sight; property gets damaged and people gets hurt when they get in the path of a parading mob. The thing is this riots don’t always start spontaneously, there are always dead giveaways that a riot is about to break out.

Most of the time, there will be many telltale signs that something big is brewing and the situation may lead to an outbreak of unorderliness and rioting. The problem is, most people seem to be muted against these dead giveaways.

Learn to protect yourself against the dangers of being in the middle of an unruly mob when a riot breaks out by finding out these 3 dead giveaways that a riot is about to break out.

3 Dead Giveaways That A Riot Is About To Break Out

1. Watch out for a sudden bump in Police numbers and activities

For starters, there was a massive police presence everywhere I looked. There were more cops walking or driving around than I had ever seen in the city before before. That may sound like an obvious sign, but it was what the cops were doing and what kinds of equipment they had on hand that was significant. You could hear helicopters overhead, and there were several large nondescript buses parked near where the protest was about to begin. They were kind of like school buses, but painted white. In other words, the kind of buses that are often used to transport prisoners. They were clearly getting ready to detain a lot of people.

2. Sudden graciousness shown to the homeless

As for the behavior of the police, there was one thing I saw that stands out. I distinctly remember seeing two police officers tell a homeless man to leave the area. That’s common in some cities, but not Berkeley. There are homeless people everywhere and I’ve never seen the police do that. Unless the homeless are being unruly and someone calls the cops (which most people rarely do), the police seem to leave the homeless alone in Berkeley.

In hindsight it makes a lot of sense. After they close, the homeless often sleep in front of the shops where the riot was about to take place. And when the cops interacted with this guy, they weren’t being aggressive. The interaction looked pretty courteous. They weren’t removing someone who was causing a problem. They were removing him for his own safety.

3. Stores and businesses will know first

And perhaps the most interesting warning sign I witnessed, has to do with what many of the businesses in the area did to prepare themselves for the protest. I saw dozens of shops close early. Their owners and employees had boarded up windows and doors, as if they were getting ready for a hurricane to rip through the city.